World, in brief

Almost 160 million Brazilians can vote on Sunday in a runoff for president between Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 80, and Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, 45. [1][2]

Bolsonaro won the first round on 4 October with 47% to Lula's 45%, a lead of more than 2.2 million votes. [3]

Since Brazil returned to democracy in the 1980s, no candidate who lost the first round has come back to win the runoff. [4][2]

A CNT/MDA poll released on Saturday put Bolsonaro on 46.3% and Lula on 45%, inside its margin of error of 2.2 points. [5]

Rio's city hall said about 1.1 million people filled Copacabana beach for Lula on Saturday. [4] He then held what AP called possibly the biggest rally of his career, on Paulista Avenue in Sao Paulo. [1]

Lula's side has held mass rallies since the first round to bring out some of the 33 million people, 21% of voters, who did not vote then. [2][1]

Bolsonaro closed his campaign in Belo Horizonte, capital of Minas Gerais, a state that has backed the national winner for decades. [1][2]

Flavio is the son of Jair Bolsonaro, president from 2019 to 2022, who is serving 27 years for plotting a coup after losing to Lula. [2] Flavio says his first act would be to free him. [6]

Bolsonaro promises El Salvador-style mega-prisons, cuts to public spending and trying 16-year-olds as adults. [3][6]

Before the vote, Lula raised payments from Bolsa Familia, his cash-aid scheme for poor families, by 15%. [3] He also cut fuel taxes and wiped the debts that 3.6 million small businesses owed Brazil's government. [3]

Lula calls the vote a matter of sovereignty and says his rival 'kisses the American flag'. [5] Bolsonaro is an ally of US President Donald Trump, who put 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods last year. [7]

Bolsonaro admits taking millions of dollars from a disgraced banker, Daniel Vorcaro, to make a film about his father, and he is under investigation for corruption. [7]

Whoever wins faces a hard start, an analyst told AFP: a Lula win means a hostile Brazilian Congress, and a Bolsonaro win means a fight with Brazil's Supreme Court. [6]

Why it matters. Brazil votes on electronic machines and results come within hours of polls closing, so the margin will be known on Sunday night; the next test is whether the losing side accepts it. [1]

Serbians are voting on Sunday in a snap election for parliament between Aleksandar Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party and the Students' List, a new movement backed by university students. [20][8] The protests began in 2024, after a station canopy in the city of Novi Sad collapsed and killed 16 people. [21] Vucic quit as president in September to run for prime minister. [22] An Ipsos poll gave his party 47% to the students' 40%, but other polls put the students ahead. [8] Polls close at 8pm local time. [21]

Why it matters. A student win would end 14 years of rule by Vucic's party in a country that hopes to join the EU. [21][22] Election monitors have already raised concern about detentions and near-total government control of the media. [22]

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian blamed the US on Saturday for the collapse of an interim deal meant to end the war the US and Israel began on 28 February. [23] He said both sides should still return to it. [23] A day earlier, Donald Trump said he 'may do another little Epic Fury', the US name for its attacks on Iran. [24] Iran's Revolutionary Guards, its most powerful armed force, said even a limited strike would be answered 'several times greater'. [23]

Why it matters. The US has sent a third aircraft carrier group and 10,000 more sailors and Marines toward the Gulf, The Japan Times reports from Bloomberg. [25] A Brookings Institution analyst expects strikes shortly after the US midterm elections on 3 November. [26]

Jay Clayton, the US director of national intelligence, wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday that Iran has 'substantially increased' efforts to target US personnel. [15] He said the plotting had reached advanced stages in the Middle East and other countries. [15] The US had already ordered non-emergency embassy staff and their families out of Saudi Arabia this week. [24] It now warns citizens about travel to 13 countries in the region, citing terrorism. [27]

Why it matters. The list runs from Israel and Iraq to the UAE, Qatar and Oman. [27] A State Department official said the warnings reflect recent Houthi strikes on Saudi airports, not new Houthi weapons. [27]

Air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition on Sanaa, Yemen's capital, and the port of Hodeidah killed at least 16 people on Saturday, Houthi media said. [14] One strike hit housing for cement factory workers and killed six women and a child. [14] The Houthis, an Iran-backed group that holds Sanaa, fired missiles at Taif, Yanbu, Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, which were shot down. [28][13] They also hit coastguard buildings in Aden, seat of Yemen's recognised government. [28]

Why it matters. A truce agreed under the UN in 2022 has collapsed since July, opening another front in the Iran war. [28][29] The death toll in Yemen comes only from Houthi media and could not be checked. [13]

Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport partly reopened on 25 October, after Houthi attacks closed it earlier this month. [30] At least 21 people have been killed in Houthi attacks on Saudi airports since October began, 13 of them at Riyadh on 10 October. [15] Etihad, the Abu Dhabi airline, has cancelled flights to Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah until 5 November. [30] Emirates, the Dubai airline, will not fly to Riyadh or Dammam until 8 November. [30]

Why it matters. Flydubai, a smaller Dubai airline, returns to Riyadh only on 30 October, so travellers between Saudi Arabia and the UAE face weeks of fewer flights. [30]

Turkey's Defence Minister Yasar Guler said on Friday that Turkish troops are not expected to fight the Houthis under the Makkah pact, a defence deal with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. [31] Any Turkish help to Saudi Arabia would aim to deter attacks, he said. [31] The pact, signed in August, treats an attack on one member as an attack on all, but it is unclear whether that covers armed groups like the Houthis. [31] Turkey's parliament has not yet approved it. [31]

Why it matters. The same day, foreign ministers from eight countries, including the UK, France, Germany and Italy, met in Istanbul and condemned the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia. [31]

Israeli troops levelled homes in Ein Deir Baha, a district of Hebron, the biggest city in the occupied West Bank, after two soldiers were killed at a checkpoint on Friday. [32] Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, said about 2,000 residents had been displaced and would not return until Israel has finished dealing with Hamas in Hebron. [33] Hebron's municipality said 35 hectares had been destroyed or marked for destruction. [32] The Palestinian Prisoners' Club, a rights group, said about 70 people were arrested. [34]

Why it matters. Hebron's mayor said 1,300 more people could lose their homes. [33] B'Tselem, an Israeli rights group, called it ethnic cleansing. [35] Palestinian officials call it collective punishment of people who had nothing to do with the attack. [36]

Israel's army said all land crossings with the West Bank will close on Tuesday, when Israelis vote. [37] From Sunday, Palestinian workers are also barred from Israeli settlements, apart from some industrial zones. [37] Before the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023, more than 100,000 Palestinians had permits to work in Israel, and only a small share have them back. [37] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened a 'very big surprise' for the Palestinian Authority, which runs parts of the territory. [37]

Why it matters. AP counts six Israelis killed in the West Bank this year. [38] The Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah counts 112 Palestinians killed there in the same time. [38]

Five Italian women held by Israeli police in the West Bank were freed and flown home on Saturday, Italy's foreign ministry said. [39] They were detained on Thursday in Kiryat Arba, an Israeli settlement, with other foreign activists who had come to protect Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest. [39] Yesh Din, an Israeli rights group, has recorded more than 330 incidents of settler violence linked to this year's harvest, which began in late September. [39]

Why it matters. Olives are the backbone of Palestinian farming, a sector worth about 8% of the economy and more than 60,000 jobs, the Palestinian Authority says. [39]

Thousands marched in Tel Aviv on Saturday against Benjamin Netanyahu's government, three days before Israel's election. [9] The rally was called by the October Council, a group of families of people killed or taken hostage on 7 October 2023. [9] It wants a state inquiry into how the attack was missed. [9] The four main opposition leaders took part, including Gadi Eisenkot, a former army chief. [40] The last polls before a ban on new polls gave neither side a majority. [9]

Why it matters. Eisenkot's year-old party, Yashar, is projected to win 20 of 120 seats, ahead of Netanyahu's Likud. [41] In the north, where about 70,000 people were evacuated for almost two years, army reservists told The National they want Netanyahu gone. [42]

Both main camps in Israel's election are posting AI-made and fake videos on X. [43] Eisenkot posted one in which a Hamas fighter wishes Netanyahu a happy birthday. [44] Netanyahu posted one of Eisenkot turning from a young man to hug Mansour Abbas, an Arab-Israeli politician. [44] Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, reported that dozens of bots built to attack Iran's government now back Netanyahu's Likud. [43] Israel's Central Elections Committee restricted Likud's use of Elector, an app that tracks who has voted, over privacy. [43]

Why it matters. A Likud billboard in Nazareth reads 'the Right or Palestine'. [44] Arab parties, which most Palestinian citizens of Israel vote for, are seen by many as the kingmakers in a tied race. [43]

Hamas told the UN's humanitarian coordinator in Gaza, Ramiz Alakbarov, last week that it is ready to carry out another attack like 7 October 2023, Israeli media reported. [45] The message reached Israel's army, whose officer for Palestinian civilian affairs, Maj Gen Yoram Halevy, wrote urgently to Netanyahu. [45] Hamas said Israeli moves in Gaza, including shifting the 'Yellow Line' that marks Israeli-held ground, are making it lose control. [45]

Why it matters. Halevy called the message unusually blunt. [45] Netanyahu goes into Tuesday's vote with his record on security badly damaged by the 2023 attack. [46]

Two more people died on Saturday, raising the toll from Friday's attack on St George's Greek Orthodox church in Hamoud, a village in Jordan's Karak province, to nine. [47] Three masked gunmen fired into a funeral, and none had been caught by Saturday. [16][48] Most of the dead were from the Halasah family, one of Jordan's best-known Christian families, and three were doctors. [16] King Abdullah ordered an 'iron fist' response. [49]

Why it matters. Christians are about 250,000 of Jordan's 11 million people, and The National calls this the deadliest attack on them since the 1950s. [16] The US embassy says security has been raised at malls and embassies across the country. [49]

France's interior ministry counted about 410,000 people marching on Saturday over living costs and run-down schools, and unions counted 800,000. [10] Police made almost 1,000 arrests as clashes broke out at the end of marches in Paris, Marseille, Lyon and other cities. [10][50] President Emmanuel Macron had allowed only marches organised by recognised unions, and 70,000 police were on duty. [10] Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the day went better than last weekend, when 2,700 were arrested. [51]

Why it matters. Two people were badly hurt, including a man in Toulouse who reportedly lost fingers. [51] France chooses Macron's successor in six months. [51]

Protests also ran on Saturday in Milan, Rome, Turin, Madrid, Lisbon and Brussels, over pensions, housing, schools and living costs. [11] Italian police detained 371 people in eight cities, 110 of them under 18, and made nine arrests. [11] Italy sent 500 more soldiers to Milan, and protesters burned a giant power bill outside the energy regulator. [52] In Madrid, pensioners marched for pensions that rise with prices. [53] In Brussels, shops boarded up their windows against looting. [54]

Why it matters. Clashes broke out in Rome and Turin, while Milan's march stayed peaceful. [52] Italian police said minors made up much of last week's violent crowds, and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has toughened penalties for them. [52]

Riot police in Tirana, Albania's capital, used tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets on Saturday against protesters who threw rocks and set fire to the agriculture ministry's door. [55] More than 300 protesters and police have been hurt since mid-October, officials say. [12] The protests began over a luxury resort on the coast backed by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law. [55] They grew into anger at corruption, a lack of jobs and poor schools. [55]

Why it matters. Prime Minister Edi Rama, in power since 2013, promised a 'prolonged and persistent' response from the state. [12][55] He blames 'foreign actors' and accuses Russia and Iran of spreading false stories online. [12]

Jordan Bardella was re-elected leader of the National Rally, France's main far-right party, with 98.98% of members' votes on Saturday; he was the only candidate. [56] The party's congress in Orleans opens Marine Le Pen's run for president in six months, with Bardella hoping to be her prime minister. [56][57] About 11,000 people marched in Orleans against the party, by the authorities' count. [56] Le Pen speaks on Sunday. [56]

Why it matters. The counter-march came a day after a shooting in Trappes, near Paris, killed one person; it is being investigated as racist. [58] Bally Bagayoko, mayor of Saint-Denis near Paris, joined the march and linked the attack to hateful talk on social media. [58]

Bulgarians are voting on Sunday for a president, a mostly ceremonial job that commands the armed forces and can veto laws. [59] Acting President Iliana Iotova led an Alpha Research poll with 41%, ahead of a former caretaker prime minister, Andrey Gyurov, on 28%. [59] To win outright a candidate needs turnout above 50%, and turnout is expected to be under 40%. [59] So a runoff on 1 November is likely. [59]

Why it matters. Gyurov signed a security deal with Ukraine, while Iotova wants a negotiated end to the war. [60] Drone attacks on ships off Bulgaria's coast have likely killed about two dozen sailors, and Prime Minister Rumen Radev says they benefit Russia. [60]

Ukraine said it struck the Togliattikauchuk plant in Togliatti, one of Russia's biggest makers of synthetic rubber, on Saturday. [61] It also hit the Proton plant in Oryol, which Ukraine says makes missile parts. [61] A drone attack on the power grid cut electricity and water in Russian-held Crimea, home to 2.5 million people. [62] Russia's defence ministry said it downed 1,297 drones in a day. [61] Russian strikes killed at least five people in eastern Ukraine. [62]

Why it matters. The fighting goes on while both sides prepare a local truce in Oleshky, a Russian-held town, to let in aid. [63] Russia and Ukraine say firing there stops on 27 October. [63]

Ukraine's Defence Minister Yevhenii Khmara said on Saturday that Starlink and Starshield, SpaceX's satellite internet and its military version, now hold a stable link above 400km/h. [64][65] For more than a week drones had lost the link above about 161km/h, and commanders reported lost drones and missions. [65][64] Elon Musk, who owns SpaceX, then said Ukraine had broken Starlink's terms by using it for 'offensive drone strikes', a gap he said was closed last week. [66]

Why it matters. Musk warned that breaking the terms 'will result in end of service', and also wrote that without Starlink Ukraine's front line 'would collapse immediately'. [66] Europe's nearest rival, Eutelsat's OneWeb, has about 600 satellites against Starlink's 10,000-plus. [67]

North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, crossed the New Yalu River Bridge into Dandong, a Chinese border city, on Saturday. [68] The bridge was finished in 2014 but stood unused for 12 years, because North Korea had not built roads and customs posts for it; it opened in mid-October. [69][68] Kim met Wang Huning, a senior leader of China's Communist Party, and they toured a car factory. [68] It was his sixth visit to China. [68]

Why it matters. The visit came around the 25 October anniversary of China joining the Korean War in 1950. [68][69] China is North Korea's biggest trading partner. [69]

Mali's army said on Saturday it found 54 bodies in a camp at Tagadayat, near Menaka in the north-east, raising the toll from attacks last weekend from 48. [18] The camps mostly housed the Daoussahak, the community behind the MSA, an armed group allied with Mali's military government. [18] The army blames the Islamic State group's Sahel branch. [18] A security source told AFP the killings were revenge for recent army operations. [18]

Why it matters. Nine survivors were taken to the town of Menaka. [18] Mali has fought jihadists, separatists and criminal gangs since 2012. [18]

Gunmen on about 50 motorcycles raided Binnari, a village in Nigeria's Taraba state, after Friday prayers, killing people and looting shops for up to four hours. [17] Police recovered 10 bodies, survivors counted at least 20, and Amnesty International, a rights group, said 40 to 50. [70][17] The attackers had gone by the time police arrived. [17] The same day, Nigeria's army said an air strike killed 15 'terrorists' in Borno state. [70]

Why it matters. Amnesty said the authorities leave rural communities 'at the mercy of gunmen'. [70] Security is one of two issues expected to decide Nigeria's January election. [71]

Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu, 74, launched his campaign for a second term at a stadium in Kaduna on Saturday, ahead of the election on 16 January 2027. [71] He scrapped fuel subsidies and let the naira, Nigeria's currency, fall. [71] That steadied public finances but brought the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation. [71] Petrol reached about 1,400 naira ($1.05) a litre in Lagos in September. [71] 'They created the hunger,' he said of his rivals. [72]

Why it matters. His main rivals are again Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi. [72] In 2023 Tinubu won with less than 37% of the vote. [72]